FRINGE SCIENCE

November 2012

Welcome to The Science & Entertainment Exchange's Holiday Gift Guide for Science Lovers! Click the diagonal arrows in the top right-hand corner of the guide to expand the window and enable the interactive features. Hopefully you can find something for every budding scientist in your life!

A recent study from the University of Westminster found that watching scary movies may help people burn calories and in turn, lose weight.

The study suggests that watching scary movies may cause the viewer’s pulse to quicken and the body to experience a surge of adrenaline; two factors that are often seen in intensely stressful situations. Both are known to increase the viewer’s metabolic rate and decrease appetite, which could ultimately lead to calories being burned at a faster rate.

In an unrelated study, the American Council on Fitness found that the average American enjoys around 3,000 calories and 229 grams of fat on Thanksgiving. That is 1,000 more calories than the suggested 2,000 calorie per day diet, not even considering the amount of fat we consume during that deliciously decadent meal!

So, after all the turkey, gravy and stuffing have been enjoyed, it seems like the perfect time to take part in a scare-a-thon of epic proportions!

Barack Obama may have been officially announced as the winner of Tuesday night’s presidential election, but a statistical model could be crowned the victor in certain circles.

Nate Silver, a political blogger for The New York Times, runs the website fivethirtyeight.com, which accurately predicted 100 percent of the 50 state results on Tuesday night. His site is aptly named for the 538 electoral votes up for grabs to win the presidential election.

What sets Silver apart from most political junkies is that he does not just look at one poll and make projections, he looks at all of the polls.